The present disclosure relates to a device control apparatus and a device control method.
Recently, a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) has been drawing attention as a digital interface for transmitting a video signal (image signal) and a sound signal (audio signal). HDMI is an interface in which a sound transmitting function and a copyright protecting function are added for the use in audio visual (AV) devices, to the digital visual interface (DVI) standard, which is a standard of connection between a personal computer (PC) and a display.
Further, in the HDMI standard, inter-device control using consumer electronics control (CEC) is defined. The CEC is one transmission line prepared in the HDMI standard, and performs bidirectional data transmission. Using this CEC line, various controls can be performed based on unique physical and logical addresses assigned to each device present in an HDMI network (for example, see JP 2013-51533A).
Here, in the case where a CEC function called system audio control as disclosed in JP 2013-51533A is introduced, output destinations of sounds are exclusive between one sound output apparatus and another sound output apparatus. To be more specific, in the case where a system audio mode is OFF, headphones are set to be in a mute state, and the sound is output from a television receiver. On the other hand, in the case where the system audio mode is ON, the television receiver is set to be in the mute state, and the sound is output from the headphones.